


The Reseacher

by Control_Room



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Attempted Murder, Gen, Minor Violence, Mutiny, Ocean, Sea Monsters, Second Person, Survival, The ink demonth, you are a rock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 07:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19988689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: You are a rock.You have seen much.You are not very curious.Or so you thought.





	The Reseacher

You are a rock. You have been a rock for as long as you can remember. An ocean rock, but barely. Submerged, leaning on an isle, under the water when the tide is high, poking out when the tide is low. Seaweed clings to you, and you sense it loosely, like many detached arms that you never bothered with. You could ‘see’, though in the sense of feeling the waves patterns, making out what there was, and glints of light flashing onto you from the sun. You could ‘hear’ from the vibrations traveling along the earth, and from the waves in the sky hitting against you and bouncing off.

You have been there for a long time.

You have seen and heard many, many things.

Things many would consider strange, but you have been there since the beginning, and so, are not novel to you in the slightest. You have seen them as children, heard their banter, watched them grow, all stoically, uncaringly.

You, after all, are a rock.

Boats have passed you before. You can sense the life unlike those you are used to on board. The first time you had seen a ship, you felt a dull sense of curiosity, ended as soon as the object was comprehended. Those who could not breathe water resided on it. Not like him, or him, no, they both could stay under for very long, and breathe quickly.

These beings could not. They could only go in for a third of the time he could, at most, and had two tails, not one. Those tails were quite useless for swimming, you observed, yet the beings seemed to enjoy it. For short times.

Then, as time passed, the boats became faster, more efficient. Those who swam donned bulky packs and equipment, and could stay in the water even longer than them, though not as long as the others that did not need air.

You did not care for them. They took care of the area around you, cleaning the mess that other two - leg - no - fin - air - needing creatures made.

‘Serves them right,’ was the semi lucid thought you deigned appropriate.

  
It changed one day.

A boat came in at night. It stayed. You could hear those on it converse in low tide, how they were researchers. You dubbed them a separate form of the other beings, like how there are dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.

As they stayed longer, you learned only one of them was a researcher. The rest were hired hands, being they worked for him for pay. They did not like the researcher much.

Tension rose in the ocean’s waves, and with it, on the ship. The hired hands spoke in quiet tones, becoming quieter as the researcher passed them and happily wished them a good day. Sounds of metal on metal creaked in the night. Stealing away to the captain’s quarters when the learner slept. 

You hazily wondered what it all meant. 

Full moon came.

Silence, as you rested above and below the surface.

Not even a single cry of a bird, the waves nearly mute.

The shriek crashed through the quiet night, resounding over and over.

You sensed some of them wake from the cry, the nocturnal one already watching whatever was happening on the ship.

You could see the shadow of the researcher being tossed in the center of the boat’s deck, scrambling to their legs, wobbling as the sea buffeted the vessel. The wind stole away the pleading words of the student, his shadow nearing the edge. Crew mates grabbed the researcher’s wrists, and hauled them over the metal barrier, and there was the scream again, landing heavily in the water with a splash. You felt the water go cold.

You could hear the researcher more clearly now.

“I can’t swim!” was the cry, muffled by coughing and sputtering. “Please, let me up, I-I’ll pay you more, d-don’t lea-”

A wave drove the two - legs under. 

There was laughter on the ship, which quietly started and began to leave.

You sensed that this was… wrong. 

This was cruelty for what reason? To eliminate the researcher, but why?

You felt good old curiosity ebbing into you with the tide. You could feel the vibrations of the being’s struggle against the pull of the water. 

“Help!”

Silence again.

You felt them weaken.

“P-Please….”

Their limbs fell stiff. You could tell because the vibrations stopped.

Sinking, but too slow. Still fighting.

The current drove their body toward you, toward the island.

Motion ceased slowly.

Their hand brushed you, and you felt. 

Life. 

You could hear and see and taste and smell, the crisp smell of the ocean’s air, the salty taste of the waters, the sight of the few trees somehow growing on the island, the wheezing of the researcher’s struggling body.

And you wanted to help.

Your arms of seaweed reach to them, and tug him onto you. You are now aware of more. There are rocks next to you, brothers and sisters and elevated ones, of the time before life. You pass them to the one beside you, and watch as they are transported along a slow chain of awakened stones. The tide helps push them onto the sandy bank of the island. 

You, the rocks, with your new sapience, discuss the matter. The researcher was not breathing, water filling his air, body quivering with cold and inability to move.

You enlist the beings of the island to help them as well.

Gasps and a muffled cry crash over the winds again, and you pity them.

What a strange emotion. 

You realize you can feel now.

How odd. 

The researcher falls asleep, restored to life, battered and bruised, but alive.

The morning light woke them.

You watched them pull themself up, looking out to the waters.

You can feel their despair. Their gratitude of being alive.

They reached to their chest, pulling off a small object that opens with a click.

A sigh of longing and relief.

The object was returned, and the researcher giving a small laugh.

“Got your wish, didn’t you, Johan,” they said to themself with a cough. “You wanted to study these waters, and here you are. I can study all I’d like now.”

They sat back down onto the sands, dropping their head into their hands. 

“Oh, what am I going to do now?”

They shook their head with resolve.

“Snap out of it, Ramirez,” they scolded themself. “Get to work. Priority one is water.”

You are confused for a moment.

There is water everywhere.

They walked toward you and the other rocks, and rearranged you all to form a crescent shape.

“That should filter it a bit better,” Johan sighed. “Still need a way to boil it.”

They passed beyond the barrier they made, going to gather seaweed and laying it on the shore to dry.

You have seen fire before, and you realized this being was going to make it from scratch.

As they waited for the seaweed to dry, they grabbed a piece of driftwood, and a stone, carving away at the wood to form a spear. 

“This should hold for now,” they mutter.

You can sense the curiosity of everything around you.

This being may have come to research this area in the seas, but in the meantime, the life around them will research them as well.

Especially  _ them _ . They surround the island, keeping a distance so they do not see them.

They are all so curious.

Seems there is much to learn.


End file.
